News

From Rule-Taker to Rule-Shaper: Africa’s Strategic Choices in the Global Economic Order

Wednesday, 18 February 2026 07:12

Africa is often portrayed as a space where disorder reigns and the “law of the jungle” is the natural state of affairs. This narrative is convenient, but misleading. In reality, the kind of jungle law where power bends rules in its own favor is increasingly becoming a hallmark of the modern global economic system, largely shaped by the world’s most powerful economies.

Read on our blog.

Africa's Value-Addition Illusion: Why the Problem Is Business, Not Policy

Thursday, 12 February 2026 08:14

Every few years, Africa rediscovers the same truth and treats it like new: exporting raw materials keeps the continent poor. This message is once again at the center of debate at the African Union Executive Council meetings currently ongoing in Addis Ababa and at the Mining Indaba 2026. There, the founder of BUA group, a leading Nigerian conglomerate with investments in food, infrastructure, mining, and manufacturing across Africa, repeated a familiar call: Africa must move from raw extraction to industrial value addition. He is right. But an uncomfortable truth is still missing from the conversation. All the speeches calling for value addition are meaningless unless we ask a basic question: who is supposed to do it? The answer is not governments. Not international organizations. It is businesses. Value is added only when companies take risks, build factories, run production lines, and compete in markets. Policies, finance, and infrastructure can support this process, but they cannot replace it.

Can Services Drive Structural Transformation in Africa’s Least Developed Countries?

Tuesday, 10 February 2026 14:13

In 2025, the United Nations classified 44 countries as Least Developed Countries (LDCs), 32 of which are in Africa. The UNCTAD Least Developed Countries Report 2025 examines the evolving geography of LDCs and asks a central question: can the services sector (now accounting for nearly half of GDP in many LDCs), become a genuine driver of structural transformation?

The Hidden Link Between Energy Access and Low Labor Productivity in Africa

Tuesday, 10 February 2026 07:32

Energy has always been the quiet partner in rising incomes. More energy enables higher productivity, healthier lives, and larger opportunities for growth. Yet in much of Africa today, limited energy access remains a major bottleneck, deeply intertwined with persistently low levels of labor productivity. Addressing this energy gap is crucial not only for expanding access to electricity but also for boosting economic output across the continent (read on our blog).

Africa’s Single Market Needs Enforcement. But a Continental Court Alone Cannot Deliver It

Wednesday, 28 January 2026 13:49

The argument that Africa’s single market will fail without a supranational court is both compelling and incomplete. Compelling, because it correctly identifies the lack of enforcement (not vision) as the Achilles’ heel of African integration. Incomplete, because it places the judicial cart before the institutional horse.